SDA show 3 -- more prizewinners

There were several quilts in the SDA show, but only one was spectacular, and it took third prize:

Gerri Spilka, Interactions #22: Hinged (detail below)

This was a very large quilt (I should have taken a picture with somebody standing there for scale) and impeccably designed and crafted.  I liked the strong, clear colors and the quirky shapes -- banjos?  melons?  It was densely machine quilted.

I'm not sure what makes it "transgressive."  The artist tried to finesse her way around this question by describing it as "stepping off from traditional quilting methods and composition," but haven't we all, in this corner of the art/quilt world?  Fortunately, I don't put a lot of importance on sticking to show themes. I'm just glad the jurors voted this one in.

Gwen Lowery, Aurora Corona 1 (detail below)

This piece, which took an honorable mention, is also very large.  It's densely machine stitched onto canvas, then stretched onto five panels, hung slightly separated.  She used a commercial embroidery machine to execute the watery, abstracted design, perhaps an aurora, perhaps an out-of-focus flower.

I was intrigued by this piece because I too have been experimenting with dense machine stitching onto canvas (read about it here).  But the effect is totally different: mine bulges and waves while Lowery's is perfectly flat.  How nice to find so much potential variation within a single technique.

The show, "Transgressing Traditions," is co-sponsored by the Surface Design Association and the host Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn NY.  It's up through  August 21.  I'll show you more work next week.